CURIOSITIES OF WILD LIFE. 85 



ground from the place where I found it lying 

 to the open space where I desired to photo- 

 graph it and its slayer , but the stoat did not 

 appear to be guided by scent in his search for 

 it. He leapt about in the grass until he dis- 

 covered it by sight, and I secured the illustrations 

 herewith reproduced of him in the act of taking 

 re-possession of his victim. 



My efforts at securing pictorial records of his 

 doings became too persistent for stoat patience, 

 and, ruefully giving up his prize, he returned to 

 the burrow from which he had recently emerged. 

 In less than five minutes there was another piercing 

 scream, and rabbits of all ages began to bolt, 

 helter-skelter, north, south, east, and west. A 

 half-grown one came and sat for a moment in 

 front of me. The quivering nostrils and blazing 

 eyes of the little fugitive told a pathetic tale of 

 terror. It was followed almost immediately by 

 its relentless foe, but, contrary to expectation, 

 instead of giving up the struggle and abandoning 

 itself to helpless fascination, it bolted, and I 

 watched it run without stopping in an almost 

 straight line for four or five hundred yards. The 

 stoat followed for about half the distance, and 

 then gave up the chase, and returning to the 

 burrow, I saw him no more. 



Whilst photographing loaches and bullheads 

 in shallow parts of the River Eden on one occasion, 



